ASSESSING BASIC LANGUAGE

COMPETENCE
INTRODUCTION
 Language is a code that exists in the mind of its
users.
 It is not directly observable.

 A person who can use language appropriately &

correctly in most of the situations can be said to
have competence in that language.
 Linguistic Competence – Receptive & Expressive

 Linguistic Competence is the ability of the native

speaker to understand & generate sentences as
per the demands of situation.
 It requires at least 4-5 years of language
exposure to internalize the language.
TWO LEVELS OF LANGUAGE COMPETENCE
 Basic Language Competence (BLC)
 Advanced or Enriched Language Competence
(ELC) or Schooled Language Competence
BLC
 Every non-impaired child acquires this by 3 or 4
years just by hearing it.
 This mainly includes the functional vocabulary of
about 2000 words needed for day to day
communication (statements, requests,
commands, questions, use of ‘and’/’but’/’if’/’so’ etc.)
USES OF LANGUAGE AT BLC LEVEL
 To protect their own rights & interests
 To initiate & maintain relationships
 To report on a present experience
 To report on a past experience
 To direct their own or others actions
 To talk about future or anticipate
 To see casual & dependent relations (use of
‘why’/’if’)
 To deal with problems in imagination & see
possible solutions
 To justify behaviour
 To reflect upon own feelings & of others
ELC
 Adult competence in grammatical rules of
language is not attained until 14 or 15 years of
age.
 After BLC, following factors play an interactive
role in developing ELC :
 Maturity: physical – motor & cognitive

 Ever increasing store of varied experiences

 School education & environment

 Appropriate language exposure

STATUS OF LANGUAGE LEVELS OF HEARING
CHILDREN WHEN THEY ENTER SCHOOL
 BLC serves dual purpose:
 It provides the child a powerful tool to
communicate.
 Language acts as a mediator in shaping &
building up structures of world knowledge. The
BLC is the foundation & tool through which
instruction in the classroom takes place.
 The child learns to read what he already knows
orally.
 This language is taken for granted while
designing primary school curriculum &
textbooks; to focus on knowledge acquisition.
STATUS OF LANGUAGE LEVELS OF DEAF
CHILDREN WHEN THEY ENTER SCHOOL
 Majority of deaf children who enter school at the
age of 4 to 6 years are without any verbal
communication skills.
 The mild to moderate might have some words &
some grammatically incorrect sentences; but
severe to profound deaf have almost no speech or
language due to lack of exposure.
 They have limited vocabulary.
 They do not understand language structures.
 The language in the textbooks introduced from
class 1 is beyond their capacity.
 They may pass school examinations just by
memorizing a few questions & answers.
SPECIFIC LANGUAGE SKILLS INVOLVED IN
BLC
 BLC is that level of language ability where the
child has mastery over the functional vocabulary
of everyday usage & basic syntactic rules of
language.
 Basic Sentence Patterns:

 I eat: NP + Vi

 I eat a banana : NP1 + Vt + NP2

 I am a boy: NP1 + Vbe + NP2

 I am happy: NP1 + Vbe + Adjective

 I am watering the plants: NP1 + Vl or Vbe + NP2

 He walks slow: NP1 + V + Adverb

BASIC SEMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS ( TWO
WORD UTTERANCES)
 Agent + Action = Daddy push
 Action + Patient = Push truck

 Agent + Patient = Baby ball

 Possession + X = My dog

 Recurrence + X = More milk

 Attribute + X = Yellow bus

 No-existence + X = No milk

 Rejection + X = No sleep

 Denial + X = No dog

 X + Location = Baby bed/ Doll there/Put here

BASIC SEMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS (THREE
WORD UTTERANCES)
 Agent + action + patient = Daddy hit ball
 Mover + action + location = Mummy go outside

 Instrument + action + patient = Knife cut me

 Possessor + attribute + patient = Jimmy big dog

KNOWLEDGE OF THE MEANING OF WORDS
 The child ran fast.
 A river ran through the field.

 The car ran smoothly.

 Two candidates ran for the post of President.

KNOWLEDGE OF THE DIFFERENT
RELATIONSHIPS THAT CAN BE EXPRESSED IN
SENTENCES.

 Agent – action : Raju cried.

 Agent – action – patient : Raju slapped Mohan.
 Experiencer – process – patient : Mira wants some
cake.
 Beneficiary – process – patient : The girl received the
first prize.
 Agent – action – complement : Maya sang a song.
 Entity – state – equivalent : The boy became my friend.
 Entity – state – location : The car is outside.
 Entity – state – size : The ball is big/red.
 Entity – state – quality : The coffee is bitter.
 Entity – state – time : The meeting is in the morning.
ASSESSMENT OF ACQUISITION OF BLC
 Testing children particularly deaf is very
difficult.
 May not respond
 May be shy
 May be uncooperative
 May not understand the question
 One way – assessment in small group in
classroom situation in their teacher’s presence.
 Other way – teacher herself does the assessment
in a informal manner, as a game.
 Other way – observation of how a child responds
in a teaching-learning situation like directed
activity, story etc.
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IN NON-
IMPAIRED HEARING CHILDREN
 First period : 1 to 11 months/1 year
 Small number of combinations of sounds with
special meanings, which express the idea of an
entire sentence.

 Second period: 11 months/ 1 year to 2 years

 The child realizes that everything has a name.
Vocabulary increases.

 Third period: 2 - 3 years

 Multi-word utterances, well formed sentences.
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IN NON-
IMPAIRED HEARING CHILDREN
 Fourth period: 3 years onwards
 Attempts at complex sentences.

 Fourth period is when child acquires BLC.

ASSESSMENT PRIOR TO ACQUISITION OF
BLC
 The first 4-5 years must be devoted to laying the
foundation of language.
 Till the BLC is attained, the teacher can rely on
her weekly & monthly observation & evaluation
done at the end of each lesson.
 The assessment of BLC can only be done after
the child has spent 4-5 years in language
training.
 Even when BLC is acquired in pre-school classes,
it must be reinforced in primary years till it
becomes an automatic part of their langugage.
ASSESSMENT OF BLC
 Use of Cognitive Areas
 Daily routine

 Things normally seen/experienced

 School life related things

 Daily use vocabulary

 Language that a hearing child is normally

exposed to at 4-5 years.
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR ASSESSMENT
 Ensure child has spent at least 4 -5 years in good pre-
school language programme.
 Ensure child is familiar with most of the words in the
assessment.
 Give practice questions to child to understand the
format.
 While giving practice, do not point or stress
unnecessarily.
 Do not leave the written question in front of child.
 Repeat the question or action, on twice. Do not start
explaining.
 Prepare the test in advance & test it on a hearing
child.